Who sewed uniforms during WWII. Soldier's life during the Great Patriotic War

The topics of the history of the Great Patriotic War are multifaceted. For many years, the war was described from the point of view of political leadership, the state of the fronts in relation to “manpower” and equipment. The role of an individual in war was illuminated as part of a gigantic mechanism. Particular attention was paid to the ability of the Soviet soldier to carry out the order of the commander at any cost, and the readiness to die for the Motherland. The established image of war was questioned during the Khrushchev “thaw”. It was then that the memoirs of war participants, notes of war correspondents, front-line letters, diaries began to be published - sources that are least susceptible to influence. They raised “difficult topics” and revealed “blank spots”. The theme of man in war came to the fore. Since this topic is vast and diverse, it is not possible to cover it in one article.

Based on front-line letters, memoirs, diary entries, as well as unpublished sources, the authors will still try to highlight some of the problems of front-line life during the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. How the soldier lived at the front, in what conditions he fought, how he was dressed, what he ate, what he did during short breaks between battles - all these questions are important, and it was the solution of these everyday problems that largely ensured victory over the enemy. On initial stage during the war, soldiers wore a tunic with a fold-down collar, with special pads at the elbows. Usually these covers were made of tarpaulin. The gymnast was worn with pants that had the same canvas linings around the knees. On the feet there are boots and windings. It was they who were the main grief of the soldiers, especially the infantry, since it was this branch of the army that served in them. They were uncomfortable, flimsy and heavy. This type of shoe was driven by cost savings. After the publication of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the USSR army increased to 5.5 million people in two years. It was impossible to put boots on everyone.

They saved on leather, boots were made from the same tarpaulin 2. Until 1943, an indispensable attribute of an infantryman was a roll over the left shoulder. This is an overcoat that was rolled up for mobility and put on so that the soldier did not experience any discomfort when shooting. In other cases, the roll-up caused a lot of trouble. If in the summer, during the transition, the infantry was attacked by German aircraft, then because of the slope, the soldiers were visible on the ground. Because of it, it was impossible to quickly escape to a field or shelter. And in the trench they simply threw it under their feet - it would have been impossible to turn around with it. The soldiers of the Red Army had three types of uniforms: everyday, guard and weekend, each of which had two options - summer and winter. Between 1935 and 1941, numerous minor changes were made to the clothing of the Red Army soldiers.

The field uniform of the 1935 model was made from fabric of various shades of khaki color. The main distinguishing element was the tunic, which in its cut, the same for soldiers and soldiers, resembled a Russian peasant shirt. There were also summer and winter gymnasts. The summer uniform was made from cotton fabric of a lighter color, and the winter uniform was made from woolen fabric, which had a richer, darker color. The officers wore a wide leather belt with a brass buckle decorated with a five-pointed star. The soldiers wore a simpler belt with an open buckle. In field conditions, soldiers and officers could wear two types of gymnasts: everyday and weekend. The weekend tunic was often called a French jacket. The second main element of the uniform was trousers, also called breeches. Soldiers' trousers had diamond-shaped reinforcing stripes on the knees. For footwear, officers wore high leather boots, and soldiers wore boots with windings or tarpaulin boots. In winter, military personnel wore an overcoat made of brownish-gray cloth. Soldiers' and officers' overcoats, identical in cut, nevertheless differed in quality. The Red Army used several types of hats. Most units wore budenovki, which had a winter and summer version. However, at the end of the 30s, summer Budenovka

was everywhere replaced by the cap. Officers wore caps in the summer. In units stationed in Central Asia and on Far East, instead of caps they wore wide-brimmed Panama hats. In 1936, a new type of helmet began to be supplied to the Red Army. In 1940, noticeable changes were made to the design of the helmet. Officers everywhere wore caps; the cap was an attribute of officer power. Tankers wore a special helmet made of leather or canvas. In summer they used a lighter version of the helmet, and in winter they wore a helmet with a fur lining. The equipment of Soviet soldiers was strict and simple. The 1938 model canvas duffel bag was common. However, not everyone had real duffel bags, so after the war began, many soldiers threw away gas masks and used gas mask bags as duffel bags. According to the regulations, every soldier armed with a rifle was required to have two leather cartridge bags. The bag could store four clips for a Mosin rifle - 20 rounds. Cartridge bags were worn on the waist belt, one on each side.

The officers used a small bag, which was made of either leather or canvas. There were several types of these bags, some of them were worn over the shoulder, some were hung from the waist belt. On top of the bag was a small tablet. Some officers carried large leather tablets that were hung from the waist belt under their left arm. In 1943, the Red Army adopted a new uniform, radically different from that used until then. The system of insignia has also changed. The new gymnast was very similar to the one used in tsarist army and had a stand-up collar fastened with two buttons. Home distinctive feature shoulder straps became the new uniform. There were two types of shoulder straps: field and everyday. Field shoulder straps were made of khaki-colored fabric. On the shoulder straps near the button they wore a small gold or silver badge indicating the branch of the military. Officers wore a cap with a black leather chinstrap. The color of the band on the cap depended on the type of troops. In winter, generals and colonels of the Red Army had to wear hats, and the rest of the officers received ordinary earflaps. The rank of sergeants and foremen was determined by the number and width of the stripes on their shoulder straps.

The edging of the shoulder straps had the colors of the branch of the military. Among the small arms in the first years of the war, the legendary “three-line rifle”, the three-line Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, enjoyed great respect and love among the soldiers. Many soldiers gave them names and considered the rifle a real comrade in arms that never failed in difficult battle conditions. But, for example, the SVT-40 rifle was not liked because of its capriciousness and strong recoil. Interesting information about the life and everyday life of soldiers contain such sources of information as memoirs, front-line diaries and letters, which are least susceptible to ideological influence. For example, it was traditionally believed that soldiers lived in dugouts and pillboxes. This is not entirely true, most of the soldiers were located in trenches, trenches or simply in the nearest forest without regretting it at all. It was always very cold in the bunkers; at that time, there were no autonomous heating systems or autonomous gas supply, which we now use, for example, to heat a summer house, and therefore the soldiers preferred to spend the night in the trenches, throwing branches at the bottom and stretching a raincoat on top.

The soldiers' food was simple: “Shchi and porridge are our food” - this proverb accurately characterizes the rations of the soldiers' kettles in the first months of the war and, of course, the soldier's best friend is crackers, a favorite delicacy especially in hiking conditions, for example, on a battle march. It is also impossible to imagine a soldier’s life during short periods of rest without the music of songs and books, which gave rise to a good mood and raised spirits. But still, the most important role in the victory over fascism was played by the psychology of the Russian soldier, who was able to cope with any everyday difficulties, overcome fear, survive and win. During the war, the treatment of patients consisted of the use of various ointments; the Demyanovich method was also widespread, according to which naked patients rubbed a hyposulfite solution and then hydrochloric acid into the body - from top to bottom.

In this case, pressure is felt on the skin, similar to rubbing with wet sand. After treatment, the patient may feel itching for another 3-5 days, as a reaction to killed mites. At the same time, many war fighters managed to get sick from these diseases dozens of times. In general, washing in the bathhouse and undergoing sanitary treatment, both the “old men” and the reinforcements arriving at the unit, took place mainly while in the second echelon, that is, without directly participating in the battles. Moreover, washing in the bathhouse was most often timed to coincide with spring and autumn. In the summer, soldiers had the opportunity to swim in rivers, streams, and collect rainwater. In winter, it was not always possible not only to find a ready-made bathhouse built by the local population, but also to build a temporary one ourselves. When one of the Smershev heroes in Bogomolov’s famous novel “The Moment of Truth (In August 1944)” pours out the freshly prepared stew before unexpectedly moving to another place, this is a typical case of front-line life. Redeployments of units were sometimes so frequent that not only military fortifications, but also domestic premises were often abandoned soon after their construction. The Germans washed in the bathhouse in the morning, the Magyars in the afternoon, and ours in the evening. The life of a soldier can be divided into several categories related to where this or that unit was located. The greatest hardships befell the people on the front line; there was no usual washing, shaving, breakfast, lunch or dinner.

There is a common cliche: they say, war is war, and lunch is on schedule. In fact, there was no such routine, much less any menu. It must be said that then a decision was made to prevent the enemy from seizing the collective farm livestock. They tried to get him out, and where possible they handed him over military units. The situation near Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942 was completely different, when there were forty-degree frosts. There was no talk of any dinner then. The soldiers either advanced or retreated, regrouped their forces, and there was no positional warfare as such, which means it was impossible to even somehow organize life. Usually once a day the foreman brought a thermos with gruel, which was simply called “food.” If this happened in the evening, then there was dinner, and in the afternoon, which happened extremely rarely, lunch. They cooked what they had enough food for, somewhere nearby, so that the enemy could not see the kitchen smoke. And they measured each soldier a ladle into a pot. A loaf of bread was cut with a two-handed saw, because in the cold it turned into ice. The soldiers hid their “rations” under their overcoats to keep them warm at least a little. Each soldier at that time had a spoon behind the top of his boot, as we called it, an “entrenching tool,” an aluminum stamping.

It served not only as a cutlery, but also as a kind of “calling card.” The explanation for this is this: there was a belief that if you carry a soldier’s medallion in your trouser pocket-piston: a small black plastic pencil case, which should contain a note with data (last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, where you were called up from), then you will definitely be killed. Therefore, most fighters simply did not fill out this sheet, and some even threw away the medallion itself. But they scratched out all their data on a spoon. And therefore, even now, when search engines find the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, their names are determined precisely from the spoons. During the offensive, they were given dry rations of crackers or biscuits, canned food, but they really appeared in the diet when the Americans announced their entry into the war and began to provide Soviet Union help.

The dream of any soldier, by the way, was fragrant overseas sausages in jars. Alcohol was only available at the front line. How did this happen? The foreman arrived with a can, and in it was some kind of cloudy liquid of a light coffee color. A pot was poured onto the compartment, and then each was measured with the cap of a 76-mm projectile: it was unscrewed before firing, releasing the fuse. Whether it was 100 or 50 grams and what strength, no one knew. He drank, “bit” his sleeve, that’s all the “drunkenness.” In addition, from the rear of the front, this alcohol-containing liquid reached the front line through many, as they now say, intermediaries, so both its volume and “degrees” decreased. Films often show that a military unit is located in a village where living conditions are more or less human: you can wash yourself, even go to the bathhouse, sleep on a bed... But this could only be the case for headquarters located at some distance from the front line.

But at the very front, the conditions were completely different and extremely harsh. The Soviet brigades formed in Siberia had good equipment: felt boots, regular and flannel foot wraps, thin and warm underwear, cotton trousers, as well as cotton pants, a tunic, a quilted padded jacket, an overcoat, a balaclava, a winter hat and mittens made of dog fur. A person can endure even the most extreme conditions. Soldiers slept, most often, in the forest: you cut spruce branches, make a bed out of them, cover yourself with these paws on top, and lie down for the night. Of course, frostbite also occurred. In our army, they were taken to the rear only when there was almost nothing left of the unit except its number, banner and a handful of fighters. Then the formations and units were sent for reorganization. And the Germans, Americans and British used the principle of rotation: units and subunits were not always on the front line, they were replaced by fresh troops. Moreover, soldiers were given leave to travel home.

In the Red Army, out of the entire 5 million-strong army, only a few received leave for special merits. There was a problem of lice, especially in the warm season. But the sanitary services in the troops worked quite effectively. There were special “vosheka” cars with closed van bodies. Uniforms were loaded there and treated with hot air. But this was done in the rear. And on the front line, the soldiers lit a fire so as not to violate the rules of camouflage, took off their underwear and brought it closer to the fire. The lice just crackled and burned! I would like to note that even in such harsh conditions of unsettled life in the troops there was no typhus, which is usually carried by lice. Interesting Facts: 1) A special place was occupied by the consumption of alcohol by personnel. Almost immediately after the start of the war, alcohol was officially legalized at the highest state level and included in the daily supply of personnel.

Soldiers considered vodka not only as a means of psychological relief, but also as an indispensable medicine in the Russian frosts. It was impossible without her, especially in winter; bombings, artillery shelling, tank attacks had such an effect on the psyche that only vodka was the only way to escape. 2) Letters from home meant a lot to the soldiers at the front. Not all soldiers received them, and then, listening to the reading of letters sent to their comrades, everyone felt it as their own. In response, they wrote mainly about the conditions of front-line life, leisure, simple soldier entertainment, friends and commanders. 3) There were moments of rest at the front. A guitar or accordion sounded. But the real holiday was the arrival of amateur artists. And there was no more grateful spectator than the soldier, who, perhaps in a few hours, was about to go to his death. It was difficult for a person in war, it was difficult to watch a dead comrade fall nearby, it was difficult to dig graves in hundreds. But our people lived and survived in this war. The unpretentiousness of the Soviet soldier and his heroism made victory closer every day.

Literature.

1. Abdulin M.G. 160 pages from a soldier's diary. – M.: Young Guard, 1985.

2. The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: encyclopedia. – M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1985.

3. Gribachev N.M. When you become a soldier... / N.M. Gribachev. – M.: DOSAAF USSR, 1967.

4. Lebedintsev A.Z., Mukhin Yu.I. Fathers-commanders. – M.: Yauza, EKSMO, 2004. – 225 p.

5. Lipatov P. Uniforms of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. – M.: Publishing House “Technology for Youth”, 1995.

6. Sinitsyn A.M. Nationwide assistance to the front / A.M. Sinitsyn. – M.: Voenizdat, 1985. – 319 p.

7. Khrenov M.M., Konovalov I.F., Dementyuk N.V., Terovkin M.A. Military clothing Armed Forces USSR and Russia (1917-1990s). – M.: Voenizdat, 1999.

This post will tell us about what we had to fight in Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. Despite the fact that at that time military personnel often wore captured clothing, no one canceled the generally accepted equipment, and read on to find out what it included.

Steel helmet SSH-40. This helmet is a modernization of the SSH-39 helmet, accepted for supply to the Red Army in June 1939. The design of the SSh-39 eliminated the shortcomings of the previous SSh-36, but the operation of the SSh-39 during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939–1940. revealed a significant drawback - it was impossible to wear a winter hat under it, and the standard woolen balaclava did not protect against severe frosts. Therefore, soldiers often broke out the SSh-39 under-the-shoulder device and wore a helmet over their hat without it.​
As a result, in the new SSh-40 helmet, the under-helmet device was significantly different from the SSh-39, although the shape of the dome remained unchanged. Visually, the SSh-40 can be distinguished by six rivets around the circumference at the bottom of the helmet dome, while the SSh-39 has three rivets, and they are located at the top. The SSh-40 used an under-body device of three petals, to which shock absorber bags stuffed with industrial cotton wool were sewn on the reverse side. The petals were tightened with a cord, which made it possible to adjust the depth of the helmet on the head.
Production of the SSh-40 began at the beginning of 1941 in Lysva in the Urals, and a little later in Stalingrad at the Red October plant, but by June 22, the troops had only a small number of these helmets. By the fall of 1942, helmets of this type were made only in Lysva. Gradually, the SSh-40 became the main type of helmet for the Red Army. It was produced in large quantities after the war, and was withdrawn from service relatively recently.

The pot is round. A bowler hat of a similar round shape was used in the army Russian Empire, made from copper, brass, tinned sheet metal, and later from aluminum. In 1927, in Leningrad, at the Krasny Vyborzhets plant, mass production of round-shaped stamped aluminum pots for the Red Army was launched, but in 1936 they were replaced by a new type of flat pot.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the fall of 1941, the production of round pots was again established in Lysva in the Urals, but from steel instead of scarce aluminum. The return to a round shape was also understandable - such a pot was easier to produce. The Lysvensky plant has done a lot of work, which has made it possible to significantly reduce production costs. By 1945, the total production of round army bowlers amounted to more than 20 million pieces - they became the most popular in the Red Army. Production continued after the war.

Duffel bag. This piece of equipment, nicknamed “sidor” by the soldiers, was a simple bag with a strap and a rope tie at the neck. It first appeared in the Tsarist army in 1869 and, without significant changes, ended up in the Red Army. In 1930, a new standard was adopted that determined the appearance of the duffel bag - in accordance with it, it was now called the “Turkestan type duffel bag”, or duffel bag of the 1930 model.
The duffel bag had only one compartment, the top of which could be pulled together with a rope. A shoulder strap was sewn to the bottom of the bag, onto which two jumpers were placed, intended for fastening on the chest. On the other side of the shoulder strap, three rope loops were sewn to adjust the length. A wooden brake boss was sewn to the corner of the bag, to which the loop of the shoulder strap clung. The shoulder strap was folded into a “cow” knot, into the center of which the neck of the bag was threaded, after which the knot was tightened. In this form, the bag was put on and carried behind the fighter’s back.
In 1941, there was a change in the appearance of the duffel bag of the 1930 model: it became slightly smaller, the shoulder strap was narrower and received a lining inside on the shoulders, which required stitching. In 1942, a new simplification followed - the lining in the shoulder strap was abandoned, but the strap itself was made wider. The duffel bag was produced in this form until the end of the 40s. Taking into account the ease of manufacture, the duffel bag became the main means for carrying personal belongings of Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.

Gas mask bag, model 1939. By 1945, no one removed the gas mask from the supplies of the Red Army soldiers. However, four years of the war passed without chemical attacks, and the soldiers tried to get rid of the “unnecessary” piece of equipment by handing it over to the convoy. Often, despite the constant control of the command, gas masks were simply thrown away, and personal belongings were carried in gas mask bags.
During the war, soldiers of even the same unit could have different bags and gas masks of different types. The photo shows a gas mask bag of the 1939 model, released in December 1941. The bag, made of tent fabric, closed with a button. It was much easier to make than the 1936 bag.

Small infantry shovel. During the war, the MPL-50 small infantry shovel underwent a number of changes aimed at simplifying production. At first, the overall design of the tray and shovel remained unchanged, but the fastening of the lining with the back strand began to be done by spot electric welding instead of rivets; a little later they abandoned the crimp ring, continuing to fasten the handle between the strands on rivets.
In 1943, an even more simplified version of the MPL-50 appeared: the shovel became all-stamped. It abandoned the lining with the rear cord, and the shape of the upper part of the front cord became flat (before it was triangular). Moreover, now the front cord began to twist, forming a tube, held together by rivets or welding. The handle was inserted into this tube, driven tightly until it was wedged with a shovel tray, after which it was fixed with a screw. The photo shows a shovel of intermediate series - with cords, without a crimp ring, with the lining fastened by spot electric welding.

Pomegranate bag. Each infantryman carried hand grenades, which were normally carried in a special bag on the waist belt. The bag was located on the left back, after the cartridge bag and in front of the grocery bag. It was a rectangular fabric bag with three compartments. The two large ones contained grenades, the third, small one - detonators for them. The grenades were brought into firing position immediately before use. The material of the bag could be canvas, canvas or tent fabric. The bag was closed with a button or a wooden clamp.
The bag contained two old grenades of the 1914/30 model or two RGD-33 (pictured), which were placed with the handles up. The detonators were in paper or rags. Also, four F-1 lemons could be placed in pairs in the bag, and they were located in a unique way: on each grenade, the ignition socket was closed with a special screw plug made of wood or bakelite, while one grenade was placed with the plug down, and the second up. With the adoption of new types of grenades during the war by the Red Army, their placement in a bag was similar to the F-1 grenades. Without significant changes, the grenade bag served from 1941 to 1945.

Soldier's trousers, model 1935. Accepted for supply to the Red Army by the same order as the 1935 tunic, the trousers remained unchanged throughout the Great Patriotic War. They were high-waisted breeches that fit well at the waist, loose at the top and tight around the calves.
Strings were sewn along the bottom of the trousers. There were two deep pockets on the sides of the trousers, and another pocket with a flap fastened with a button was located in the back. At the belt, next to the codpiece, there was a small pocket for a mortal medallion. Pentagonal reinforcement pads were sewn onto the knees. The belt had loops for a trouser belt, although the possibility of adjusting the volume was also provided using a strap with a buckle at the back. Bloomers were made from a special double “harem” diagonal and were quite durable.

Soldier's tunic, model 1943. Was introduced by order People's Commissar Defense of the USSR dated January 15, 1943, replacing the 1935 model tunic. The main differences were a soft stand-up collar instead of a turn-down collar. The collar was fastened with two small uniform buttons. The front placket was open and fastened with three buttons through through loops.
On the shoulders there were shoulder straps, for which belt loops were sewn. At the soldier's tunic in war time There were no pockets; they were introduced later. Pentagonal field shoulder straps were worn on the shoulders in combat conditions. For infantry, the field of the shoulder strap was green, the edging along the edge of the shoulder strap was crimson. The junior command staff's stripes were sewn onto the upper part of the shoulder straps.

Belt. Due to the fact that leather was expensive to process and was often required for the manufacture of more durable and critical items of equipment, by the end of the war, the belt made of braid, reinforced with elements of leather or leather split leather, became more widespread. This type of belt appeared before 1941 and was used until the end of the war.​
Many leather waist belts, differing in detail, came from the Lend-Lease allies. The American belt shown in the photo, 45 mm wide, had a single-prong buckle, like its Soviet counterparts, but it was not made of round wire, but was cast or stamped, with clear corners.
The Red Army also used captured German belts, the buckle of which had to be modified due to the design with an eagle and swastika. Most often, these attributes were simply ground off, but when there was free time, the silhouette of a five-pointed star was cut into the buckle. The photo shows another modification option: a hole was punched in the center of the buckle into which a star from a Red Army cap or cap was inserted.

Scout knife HP-40. The 1940 model reconnaissance knife was adopted by the Red Army following the results of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940, when the need arose for a simple and convenient army combat knife.
Soon the production of these knives was launched by the Trud artel in the village of Vacha (Gorky Region) and at the Zlatoust Tool Plant in the Urals. Later, HP-40 were manufactured at other enterprises, including besieged Leningrad. Despite the same design, the HP-40 from different manufacturers differs in details.​
At the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, only intelligence officers were armed with HP-40 knives. For the infantry they were not a statutory weapon, but the closer to 1945, the more and more knives can be seen in photographs of ordinary machine gunners. Production of the HP-40 continued after the war, both in the USSR and in the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact.

Glass flask. Glass flasks were widely used in many armies of the world. Russian was no exception imperial army, from which this type of flask was “inherited” by the Red Army. Despite the fact that flasks made of tin or aluminum that were produced in parallel were more practical, cheap glass containers were good for a mass conscript army.​
The Red Army tried to replace glass flasks with aluminum ones, but they didn’t forget about glass either - on December 26, 1931, another standard for the production of such flasks with a nominal volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters was approved. With the beginning of the war, glass flasks became the main thing - the shortage of aluminum and the blockade of Leningrad, where most aluminum flasks were produced, had an impact.
The flask was closed with a rubber or wooden stopper with string tied around the neck. Several types of cases were used for carrying, and almost all of them involved wearing the flask on a belt over the shoulder. Structurally, such a case was a simple bag made of fabric with rope ties at the neck. There were variants of covers with soft inserts to protect the flask during impacts - these were used in the Airborne Forces. The glass flask could also be carried in a belt pouch, adopted for aluminum flasks.

Box magazine bag. With the advent of box magazines for the Shpagin submachine gun and with the development of the Sudaev submachine gun with similar magazines, the need arose for a bag to carry them. A magazine bag for a German submachine gun was used as a prototype.
The bag contained three magazines, each of which was designed for 35 rounds. Each PPS-43 was supposed to have two such bags, but wartime photographs show that machine gunners often carried only one. This was due to a certain shortage of magazines - in combat conditions they were consumables and easily lost.
​The bag was made of canvas or canvas and, unlike the German one, it was greatly simplified. The valve was fastened with pegs or wooden brake lugs; there were also options with buttons. At the back of the bag were sewn loops for threading a waist belt. Bags were worn on a belt in front, which provided quick access to equipped magazines and putting empty ones back. Laying magazines up or down with the neck was not regulated.

Yuft boots. Initially, boots were the only footwear for the Russian soldier: boots with tapes were accepted for supply only at the beginning of 1915, when the army sharply increased in numbers and boots were no longer enough. Soldiers' boots were made from yuft leather and were supplied to all branches of the military in the Red Army.​
In the mid-30s, tarpaulin was invented in the USSR - a material with a fabric base, onto which artificial sodium butadiene rubber was applied to imitate the texture of leather. With the beginning of the war, the problem of supplying the mobilized army with shoes became acute, and the “damn leather” came in handy - the Red Army soldiers’ boots became tarpaulin.
By 1945, the typical Soviet infantryman was wearing kirzachi or boots with tapes, but experienced soldiers sought to get leather boots for themselves. The photo shows the infantryman wearing yuft boots, with leather soles and leather heels.

In countries that took an active part in World War II, women served voluntarily and on an equal basis with men. On the home front, women took on traditionally male positions: in factories, government organizations, maintaining military support equipment, resistance groups, and much more. Many women were victims of bombing and occupation. By the end of the war, more than 2 million women worked in the war industry. Hundreds of thousands of women voluntarily went to the front as nurses or as full-time soldiers. In the Soviet Union, 800,000 women, along with men, served in army units during the war.

Defense of Sevastopol. This is a Russian girl sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who, by the end of the war, killed 309 Germans.

Director Leni Riefenstahl looks through the lens of a large camera filming in 1934 in Nuremberg, Germany. The footage would form the 1935 film Triumph of the Will, later recognized as one of the best propaganda films in history.

Japanese women participate in war production at a factory in Japan, September 30, 1941.

Members of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) pose for photographs at the camp before leaving New York on February 2, 1945.

A woman checks the operation of barrage balloons in New Bedford, Massachusetts, May 11, 1943.

In New York City, nurses in a hospital put on gas masks as they move through clouds of gas, taking precautions on November 27, 1941.

Three Soviet girls in a partisan detachment during World War II

A woman, dressed in a warm winter coat, works with a searchlight near London, January 19, 1943, trying to find German bombers.

German aviator Captain Anna Reitsch shakes hands with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler after being awarded the Iron Cross Second Class at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, in April 1941.

Students are busy copying propaganda posters in Port Washington, New York, July 8, 1942.

A group of young Jewish women resistance fighters currently under arrest by German SS soldiers in April/May 1943 during extermination Warsaw ghetto by German troops after the uprising in the Jewish quarter

More and more girls are joining the Luftwaffe under the German conscription campaign. They replace the men and take up arms against the advancing Allied troops. Here German girls are shown training with the Luftwaffe, somewhere in Germany, December 7, 1944

Women are being trained for police service. January 15, 1942

The first "Women's Guerrilla" Corps had just been formed in the Philippines from Filipino women, training in the auxiliary service of local women who were hard at work here on November 8, 1941 at a shooting range in Manila.

Little known, although they have been fighting fascist regimes since 1927, the Italian "Poppies" carry out their struggle for freedom in the most dangerous conditions. The Germans and Italians of the fascist organizations are their targets, and the icy, eternally snow-capped peaks of the Franco-Italian border are their battlefield. This schoolteacher from the Aosta Valley fights alongside her husband in the "White Patrol" above the St. Bernard Pass, Italy, January 4, 1945.

Female firefighters form a "V" with crossed hoses during a demonstration of their abilities in Gloucester, Massachusetts, November 14, 1941.

A nurse bandages the arm of a Chinese soldier while another wounded man limps to provide first aid during fighting on the Salween River front in Yunnan province, China, June 22, 1943.

Women making airplane fuselages at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, California, in October 1942.

American film actress Veronica Lake shows what can happen to women who wear long hair while working at a drilling machine in a factory somewhere in America, November 9, 1943

Anti-aircraft gunners, members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), run towards the guns in a London suburb on May 20, 1941, when the alarm sounded.

Two German telephone operators during World War II.

Young soviet girls tractor drivers of Kyrgyzstan (now Kyrgyzstan), effectively replacing their friends, brothers and fathers who went to the front. Here, a girl tractor driver sows sugar beets on August 26, 1942.

Mrs. Paula Tita, a 77-year-old air raid spotter from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, stands under gun in front of the US flag on December 20, 1941.

Polish women march through the streets of Warsaw to help defend their country after German troops began their invasion of Poland on September 16, 1939

Nurses clear out rubbish from one of the wards at St Peter's Hospital, Stepney, East London, 19 April 1941. Four hospitals were among the buildings damaged by German bombs during the attack on the British capital.

Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White participates in a high-altitude flight of a Flying Fortress aircraft during World War II in February 1943.

Polish women are led through the forest by German soldiers to be executed around 1941.

These Northwestern University students hold rifles to join a campus militia in Evanston, Illinois, on January 11, 1942.

Army nurses wear gas masks in a course focusing on their pre-training at a hospital somewhere in Wales, May 26, 1944

Film actress Ida Lupino, a lieutenant in the Women's Ambulance and Defense Forces, stands near a switchboard in Brentwood, California, on January 3, 1942.

The first contingent of American Army nurses to be sent to a forward Allied base in New Guinea carry their equipment on November 12, 1942.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Generalissimo of China, advocates maximum efforts to stop Japan's war against China on February 18, 1943

US nurses walk along the beach in Normandy, France on July 4, 1944, after wading through the surf from landing craft. They are on their way to a field hospital where they will care for wounded Allied soldiers.

French men and women, civilians and members of the French internal forces took the fight to the Germans in Paris in August 1944

A German soldier wounded by a French bullet and one woman during the street fighting that preceded the entry of Allied forces into Paris in 1944

Elisabeth "Lilo" Gloeden stands before judges, being tried for her participation in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in July 1944

The Romanian army herded civilians, men and women, young and old, to dig anti-tank ditches on the border of the region, June 22, 1944, in readiness to repel attacks by the Soviet army

Miss Jean Pitcaithy, a nurse with the New Zealand Unit Hospital located in Libya, wears glasses to protect her eyes from sand, June 18, 1942

The 62nd Stalingrad Army on the streets of Odessa (8th Guards Army of General Chuikov on the streets of Odessa) in April 1944. Large group Soviet soldiers, including two women in front, marching through the streets

A girl, a member of the resistance movement, is a member of a patrol searching for German snipers who remained in some areas, Paris, France on August 29, 1944.

A woman is forcibly having her hair cut by fascist mercenaries. July 10, 1944

Women and children, of the more than 40,000 concentration camp prisoners liberated by the British, suffering from typhoid, hunger and dysentery, huddled in a barracks in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in April 1945

Women SS punishers whose brutality was equal to their male counterparts at Bergen concentration camp, Germany, April 21, 1945

A Soviet harvest woman shakes her fist at German prisoners of war as they march east under Soviet guard on February 14, 1944.

In this June 19, 2009 photo, Susie Bain shows in Austin, Texas, a 1943 photo of herself when she was one of the women pilots air force service (wasps) during World War II

That terrible period of time, when military operations were carried out on the territories of several countries at once, left its mark on many areas of people’s lives. Women in the occupied territories fought for the right to freedom shoulder to shoulder with men. Despite the economic difficulties that arose, the lack of provisions and the harsh living conditions, women tried their best to look attractive and feminine (as much as possible during the war). Despite the fact that there was no global revolution in the fashion industry of the 40s, women's style undoubtedly transformed. Second World War brought a large number of details of men's clothing into women's fashion during the war years, which, however, turned out to be in demand, and which we can see in the modern women's wardrobe to this day.

Details of men's wardrobe in women's clothing. During this period, many women became their own designers: the production of civilian clothing practically stopped. The ladies cut and sewed their own clothes. At that time, military details appeared for the first time in women's fashion: large patch pockets, belts with buckles, epaulettes.

Trousers. The casual outfit includes trousers. Moreover, not sophisticated and feminine, but masculine: broad and practical. Tights and stockings were considered an unprecedented luxury. They were worn only for some very important events, the cost was too high, and it was very difficult to get them.

"Hanger." In order to somehow keep the silhouette feminine, linings called “shoulders” were invented, making the shoulders visually wider. This made the waist look narrower. Jackets with shoulders were combined with a circle skirt or trousers to achieve the effect of an hourglass figure.

Elegant hats were also a luxury during the war years. They were worn mostly in the rear. Women who were near the war zone wore men's military clothing, or combined parts of a men's wardrobe with women's. Very often, scarves and scarves were tied on the head, since hygiene was not as good as we would like: the hairstyle could not always be in a presentable form. Therefore, scarves were very helpful. Naturally, the clothes of the privileged segments of the population were different, but at the same time they maintained the tendency to borrow items from men's wardrobe.

Clothes without collars. Another interesting detail that wartime brought into fashion was the absence of collars. With this trick, women tried to emphasize the shoulder line. It looked very natural and elegant.

The war, fortunately, ended long ago, but in the fashion industry the mood of that time was firmly entrenched. Power dressing is a style that is still relevant and often quoted modern fashion, suggests combining practical items that over time have transformed into something more stylish: baggy unisex trousers, wide overalls, various paramilitary styles and, of course, military-colored items. Looking at such clothes now, it is difficult to believe that they once appeared due to strict necessity and lack of choice.

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